Character is a rather complex thing so of course you are right, it can't (intrinsically) be done. But you can capture caricature. For example the former soccer player turned actor Vinnie Jones was known as a footballing thug and typecast as playing violent characters in movies. So a portrait that captured an aggressive, violent looking Vinnie would be fully showing caricature.

And the most scary of all: the guy who believes the other guy who told him that it's possible to show character in a portrait.

What bloody tosh! You can't do it, and if you catch the Annie L documentary - Life through a Lens - she and others tell you that and why it can't be done. Believe them, they are correct; I know because I've often tried to do just that and still can't hack it. Nobody has. Ever. It's the Golden Holy Grail. It's why we try. It's the photographic Everest Plus.

And of course we have that memorable portrait of Winston Churchill by Karsh, which conveys the impression that Churchill was a bit of a bulldog.

There's the rub: we assume the attitudes and makeup of the bulldog because that's what reputation taught us.

Remove the identity and myth, and you are faced with a slightly over-processed portrait of a somewhat fat old man with quite a degree of degeneration writ large.

The production suits purpose because we have this well-established characterisation provided along with the visual. We didn't start with a cipher. Had Winnie just been the local vicar, looked like that and was shown like that, heads would probably have rolled, and Mr Karsh might not have been paid.

There's the rub: we assume the attitudes and makeup of the bulldog because that's what reputation taught us.

Remove the identity and myth, and you are faced with a slightly over-processed portrait of a somewhat fat old man with quite a degree of degeneration writ large.

The production suits purpose because we have this well-established characterisation provided along with the visual. We didn't start with a cipher. Had Winnie just been the local vicar, looked like that and was shown like that, heads would probably have rolled, and Mr Karsh might not have been paid.